


Lived A Lie

by DashFlintceschi



Category: You Me At Six
Genre: F/F, Genderbending, Josh starts as a guy then he's a girl then he's a guy again then he's a girl again, pronoun nightmare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2014-05-15
Packaged: 2018-01-24 20:48:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1616570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DashFlintceschi/pseuds/DashFlintceschi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh dies in a car crash, so the Greek Gods decide to interfere, by giving him a new life as a woman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lived A Lie

**Author's Note:**

> I swear to God, I have no idea where these ideas come from.

Joshua Franceschi moved to Cyprus when he was a child. He loved it there, learned fluent Greek with impressive rapidity, had plenty of friends, did well in school, and found a job he loved as a masseur and personal trainer at a spa within a month of finishing school.

All of this should have been a warning for Josh, no-one’s life goes that well, ever. He didn’t heed the warning, though, which is why it was such a surprise to him when, on a rare rainy day in October, his car hydroplaned, skidding with increasing speed until it slammed into a brick wall at 90mph.

When Josh regains consciousness, he’s in a white room, completely naked. He hears a male voice address him, and quickly tries to cover himself.

“Relax, child, I am not in the room with you, you have nothing to hide,” the voice laughs, and Josh pouts.

“It’s common courtesy for hospitals to clothe their patients, and they tend not to leave them lying on the floor,” Josh snarks, and when the voice replies, it has an obvious smile to it. 

“That is true, but we are not in a hospital.”

“Then, where the hell are we?” Josh demands, and the voice sighs.

“You are in what you would call ‘limbo’. You perished in a collision with your car and a wall. I have brought you here to make a proposition,” the voice informs him, and Josh gulps.

“I’m dead?! I can’t be dead, I’m only 23!” He insists, making the voice sigh again.

“Unfortunately, it is the truth. It does not have to remain that way, though. My proposition to you, is to give you a new life. Your name will still be Joshua Franceschi, only this time, you will be female, and will have grown up in Surrey, where you were born. You will have all the memories of this new life. You will live this life for one year, and then return here to make your choice. To remain in this new life, or to die. You cannot tell anyone about this, or you will die instantly. What is your choice?” 

Josh considers it for a few minutes. Finally, he decides that even though he doesn’t want to be a girl, he wants to be dead even less.

“I choose the new life.” The words have barely left his mouth, when he hears a loud click, and he loses consciousness again.

When Josh wakes up, his hands fly to his chest. He finds surprisingly large breasts, and realises he is now a she. It wasn’t an insane dream. She clambers out of the strange bed and rushes over to the full length mirror in the corner. 

Her hair is the same colour, and just as messy as it was, only now, it’s softer, and falls to her mid-back. Her face looks much the same, only with much softer features. Her shoulders and hands are much smaller than they were, and there’s the boobs, looking as big as they’d felt. About a D cup, Josh reckons. She’s happy to note she seems as in shape as she had been, lifting her t-shirt to find a faint six-pack. Her hips are a little bigger than she would have liked, but the thing that hits her last, that takes her by surprise the most, is that she’s about a foot shorter than she had been. She didn’t really expect to be a 6’3 girl, but she hadn’t thought she’d be this short.

Josh is considering getting dressed and exploring this new life, when the door bangs open. Standing in the doorway is a woman, about Josh’s height, maybe slightly taller, with bleached blonde hair pulled back into a plait that reaches her waist, and a snapback on her head.

“Move it, Franceschi, we’re going to be late,” she insists, and after a few seconds, information rushes to Josh’s mind. Daniella Flint, prefers Dan, Josh’s best friend, and they play in a band together. Josh nods absently and moves to the wardrobe. She stares at the ridiculous amount of clothes, trying to figure out what the hell she’s supposed to do. 

After a few seconds, Dan huffs behind her, comes over and hip-checks her out of the way.

“Have you been getting high with Max again?” She demands, turning to look at Josh closely when she doesn’t get an immediate answer. Josh stares at her with wide eyes and quickly shakes her head.

“N-no, I guess I haven’t quite woken up yet,” she replies softly, and Dan eyes her for another few seconds, then goes back to digging through the wardrobe.

“Makes sense, you can be a bit of a zombie some mornings,” she mutters, pulling out a bundle of clothes and shoving them into Josh’s hands. Josh takes them and sits them on the dresser, then opens the top drawer, somehow knowing that’s where her underwear is. She pulls out a pair of boy shorts and a bra.

This is where she’s going to have trouble. Josh has plenty of experience taking bras off, she’s just never had to put one on. She pulls her t-shirt off and hooks her arms through the straps of the bra, then reaches around behind herself to struggle with the hooks.

She hears a clatter and a sigh of annoyance from behind her, then Dan’s at her back. 

“Jesus Christ, what the hell is with you, woman?” She asks exasperatedly, pushing Josh’s hands away from the back of the bra. She pulls it off altogether, then pulls it around her backwards, so the hooks are at the front. “Ok, now hook it up.” Josh does as demanded with surprising ease. “Now turn it around the right way and pull the straps up,” Dan instructs, and Josh does as she’s told. “Can’t even remember how to put a fucking bra on,” Dan mutters as she goes back to rummaging in the bottom of Josh’s wardrobe.

The outfit Dan chose for her ends up being a light grey vest top with a loose, light grey, off the shoulder top over it, black leggings, and a charcoal grey stretch of fabric that turns out to be a kind of belt thing that Dan ties for her, so the double knot sits on her left hip and the ends hang down against her leg. 

Dan just about forces her into a pair of charcoal grey, flat boots that stop just below her knees, then sits her down and does god only knows what to her hair. All Josh knows is that when Dan’s done, her hair looks fantastic, with loose, bouncy twists in it and a purple and white bandana folded and tied into it as a headband. 

Dan grabs Josh’s jaw, and before she can protest, Dan’s got eyeliner pencils and mascara wands and some kind of blue stuff, and when Dan moves out of the way of the mirror, Josh realises Dan’s given her eyes a kind of smoky look with dark blue eye shadow and just the right amount of eyeliner.

“I changed my mind about the mascara. It would’ve ruined the look,” Dan mumbles as she moves away.

“Where is it we’re going, again?” Josh asks softly, and Dan sighs in a long suffering way.

“First, we’re going to our label’s offices to talk about the next album, then the five of us are going out for lunch, and I swear to god, I will find you a boyfriend if it kills me,” Dan reminds her, and Josh sighs, nodding and following her downstairs.

Josh was worried about that. She still likes girls, what the fuck is she supposed to do about that? Dan stops halfway along the hall and puts an end to her worries.

“Or a girlfriend, of course, whichever catches your fancy first.”

Josh doesn’t pay much attention during the meeting, just enough to answer any questions aimed at her. Instead, she’s running through all her new memories, trying to get a better feel for what’s going on around her. She looks up when she hears her band mates groan around her. Max mumbles something about ‘fucking LA again’, and she’s struck with the memory of when they were in LA recording the last album.

“Please tell me we’re not going to LA again,” she whines, and their manager shuffles some papers.

“I can rent you guys a house in the hills, it’ll be a lot easier than last time,” he offers, and the five of them look at each other, silently debating with themselves and questioning each other. Finally, they all nod slightly at each other.

“Fine, but if it turns out like last time, we’ll be taking it out on you,” Matt threatens, only half joking.

The meeting ends not long after that, and they head to a café that Josh remembers is their ‘usual’. Josh also remembers often wondering why it’s their usual, when the owner’s creepy son sexually harasses her and Dan every time they’re there.

Sure enough, as soon as they walk through the door, he’s behind the counter, leering at them both.

“Afternoon, ladies, you’re both looking very sexy today,” he comments, and Josh can’t help but stare at him incredulously. Not only are they both covered up, but Dan apparently looks ‘sexy’ in a snapback; a baggy, faded jumper that Josh is quite sure is Matt’s; and a loose pair of joggers that have seen better days.

Without a word, the three boys move in front of them and Max orders for all of them. The creep doesn’t seem too happy about this, but Josh can see his dad watching from the kitchen, so he doesn’t do anything. He gives them their drinks, with Chris watching him closely to make sure he doesn’t spit in any of them, then they move quickly to a table as far from the counter as possible.

Unfortunately, he’s the one that brings the food over, standing far too close to Josh and trying to talk to her. Dan quickly comes to her rescue, though.

“Ooft, look at her, J, she isn’t half fit, eh?” Dan says over the top of Creepy, and Josh looks to where she’s indicating. The girl is nowhere near Josh’s type, and Dan knows that, but Josh is completely aware of what Dan’s doing.

“Fuck yes, I wouldn’t mind getting between her thighs,” she replies with a faked grin, but it doesn’t have the effect they wanted.

“I think the both of you should get with her, and let me film it,” Creepy leers, and Josh actually sees Dan’s temper snap.

“Right, that’s it. Hey you, come here!” She calls across the café to the owner, who comes to their table with a long-suffering look on his face. “Get something done about your creepy bastard of a son! I am fucking sick of him sexually harassing us when we come in here, so fucking do something now, or I’m phoning the fucking police,” she snarls, and the guy goes white, turning to his son with a look of rage.

“That does it. I was willing to put up with all of your other bullshit, but this is too far. You are never coming near my business again, and I’m phoning the police myself,” he growls, then disappears into the kitchen, his son trailing after him, whining pathetically.

The five of them breathe a sigh of relief and start eating, talking between mouthfuls about the next album and arguing over the best torture method for James, their manager, if LA does end up being as bad as last time. Every now and again, Dan interjects, pointing out a guy or a girl that she thinks Josh will like, but Josh manages to find a reason to veto all of them.

When they get back to the house the five of them share, Josh gets her laptop and starts researching. She’s been thinking about it ever since she woke up, and though she’s never been religious in any way, she’s starting to think the disembodied voice may have been some kind of Greek deity.

After a while, she has a small list of deities it might be; Hades, king of the Underworld and God of the dead; Zeus, king of the Gods and can do just about anything; Iapetus, the Titan of mortality; Mnemosyne, the Titan of memory; or Menoetius, another Titan of mortality. Or it could easily be a mixture of any of them. Or her life up until now could have been an insanely detailed, vivid dream, and this could be her real life.

She’s interrupted from her research several hours later by Dan calling her name from upstairs. She follows her voice to Dan’s bedroom. When she walks in, she’s surprised to find Dan standing beside her bed in just a small blue thong.

“Oh god, sorry,” she gasps, backing out quickly.

“No, no, come here, I need your help,” Dan calls to her, and Josh reluctantly comes back into the room, standing at the foot of the bed and doing everything in her power to keep her eyes on Dan’s face.

“Right, I’ve decided the five of us are going out tonight, and I need you to help me pick something,” Dan tells her, motioning to the three quarters of her extensive wardrobe that’s scattered across the bed.

Josh is extremely glad to have a reason to avoid looking at Dan, and starts digging through the clothes on the bed. It takes her a while to get through it all, but she eventually picks out a light blue corset with silver accents and starts to look for a skirt to go with it, before remembering Dan’s started wearing shorts or jeans when they go out, since so many guys tried to violate her on the dance floor when she wore skirts. She ends up choosing a pair of light denim shorts and silver heels for her.

Once Dan gets dressed, she drags Josh into her own bedroom and starts digging through her wardrobe again. Quicker than Josh would have ever managed, she produces an outfit and shoves it at Josh. It turns out to be a neon pink halter top with metallic silver edging, an indecently short skirt that matches, surprisingly thick hot pants, which Dan insists Josh wear to keep her safe if she’s going to continue wearing skirts, and metallic pink heels to finish it off.

When they finally go down to the living room, where the boys are waiting for them, Max is frowning at Josh’s laptop.

“Why the fuck have you been researching Greek Gods?” He asks, and Josh thinks quickly.

“Because I had a weird dream about-” she stops with a small gasp as her chest and throat start tingling painfully. Apparently, even that’s too close. “Mt. Olympus, and some weird stuff with the gods. I was just trying to figure out where I learned it all,” she forces out, sighing in relief as the tingling stops.

The four of them give her weird looks, but shrug it off quickly as they head out for the night. It takes none of them by surprise when they walk into the club and, within seconds, Josh and Dan are surrounded by drunk, chavvy ‘frat boy’ types, trying to chat them up or cop a feel.

They ignore all of the advances and quickly elbow their way to the bar. Dan orders four Stella’s, then looks to Josh, who usually orders some weird cocktail. She thinks about it for a few seconds, then decides ‘fuck it’ and orders a Stella, too. The four of them give her the same weird look from earlier, but don’t say anything. They all take a bottle from the bar and the boys go on the prowl, while Dan grabs Josh’s free hand and pulls her onto the dance floor with her.

After they down six more beers, two Long Island ice teas, a Sex On the Beach, a Blue Lagoon, a Paralyser, and Bloody Aztec each, it’s safe to say they’re, as Dan puts it, obliterated. A surprisingly mostly sober Chris pushes his way to them through the throng just after three to tell them that him, Max and Matt are going home, and they don’t want to leave the girls on their own. Most people would see this as sexist, but Josh and Dan are fully aware of how protective the boys are, especially with some of the incidents they’ve had in clubs in the past.

They get home with no issues, and Josh bids them all goodnight and heads up to bed as soon as they get in. She’s just changed into a baggy t-shirt and is about to get into bed, when Dan comes wandering in, dressed in much the same way Josh is.

Josh is just about to ask Dan if she’s alright, when she strides across the room, grabs Josh and kisses her hard, if rather sloppily. Josh doesn’t question it, she’s drunk, and Dan is an absolute babe. Josh finds out that night that Dan’s an animal in bed, and that she might be a tiny bit in love with Dan, but whether she really is, or if it’s the alcohol and Dan’s skill in bed that makes her think that, she’s not sure.

When Josh wakes up the next morning, it’s with a raging hangover, and the slow acknowledgement that she’s alone, and the empty side of the bed is cold. Dan left a while ago, which only adds to Josh’s growing certainty that she’s going to be sick.

When Josh finally staggers into the kitchen, the first thing she sees is Matt eating a greasy bacon sandwich, making her groan in disgust as her stomach roils again.

“Shouldn’t have gotten pissed, then, should you?” He grins through a huge mouthful, and Josh has to look away before she pukes on him. Unfortunately, her gaze lands on Dan instead, who looks as horrific as Josh feels, and won’t meet Josh’s eyes.

“So, either of you fancy telling us what happened last night?” Max asks, wiggling his eyebrows at them.

“Josh and her stupid fucking cocktails is what happened. I never would’ve, otherwise,” Dan snaps, obviously not noticing the tears welling in Josh’s eyes.

“Thanks, I really appreciate that,” she chokes out through the lump in her throat, quickly getting up and rushing out of the room.

Half an hour later, she’s just calmed down, when there’s a soft knock on her door and Chris pokes his head in. 

“I have tea and cake,” he offers, and she nods, motioning for him to come in. He sits the mugs and the plate on the bedside table and settles next to her on the bed, pulling her into a tight hug.

“She wants to come and apologise and explain herself, but she’s scared that you hate her,” he murmurs, making Josh scoff softly as she leans on him and hugs him a little tighter.

“What’s there to explain? She thinks I’m a Quasimodo and I’m just a drunken mistake. At least now I know what she really thinks of me,” she murmurs, sighing sadly before jumping as Dan’s voice comes from the doorway behind her.

“I don’t think that, I could never think that about you,” she insists softly, eyes wary as Josh turns to look at her sadly.

“I’ll just give you guys a minute,” Chris mumbles, taking his mug from the table and leaving.

Dan inches into the room, moving to sit at the foot of the bed uncertainly.

“I’m sorry, J, I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I just meant, I decided a while ago that I would never sleep with you or any of the boys, because I never wanted to complicate anything, and now I’ve gone and complicated things, and upset you. You’re beyond gorgeous, and if we weren’t best friends, or band mates, I would be all over you. The only reason I said what I did was because I’m afraid it’s going to fuck up our friendship.”

Josh lets all of this sink in, then considers what she wants to say.

“I understand that, but I really want to try a relationship with you. Last night woke up some seriously strong feelings for me, and I think we could have something really great, if we just gave it a chance.”

Dan looks surprised at Josh’s announcement, but she considers it for a few moments, then nods, holding out her hand with her pinkie extended.

“Alright, but only if you swear to me that if it doesn’t work out, we do everything we can to stop it from ruining our friendship,” she insists, and Josh hooks her pinkie with Dan’s without hesitation.

“I swear, I won’t let it ruin our friendship, even if it kills me,” she vows, and Dan nods with a grin.

“In that case, you’ve got yourself a girlfriend.”

It turns out Josh is right, they have something great. That might have something to do with the fact that their relationship is almost exactly how it was when they were best friends, except they have a lot of sex, which is perfectly fine with both of them. They have a few fights, but that’s no different from before, and they deal with those fights the exact same way they did before. They go their separate ways until they’ve calmed down, then they either talk about it calmly and rationally, or they pretend it never happened and forget all about it.

It happens on their one year anniversary. They’re touring Europe, and Josh and Dan have just gotten back to the bus from celebrating. They’re telling the boys about how well it went, despite Dan having to shove her tongue down Josh’s throat to get the overenthusiastic waiter to back off. Josh grabs Dan’s arm for support with a gasp as the painful tingling in her chest and throat from so long ago starts up again.

She doesn’t understand why it’s happening, she hasn’t said anything that might have caused it, but then she realises. It’s been exactly a year to the day since she was given this life. She feels a hand shake her, and realises Dan’s trying to get her attention.

“Baby, what’s wrong? Please, just tell me so I can help,” Josh tries to reply, but her throat seems to be closing up. All she manages is a strange, strangled noise, before her knees give out and she collapses to the floor as she begins to seize.

All Dan can do is cradle Josh to her and mumble through her terrified sobs, trying to soothe Josh, even though she knows she can’t hear her, and begging her to be alright. Her begging doesn’t work, though, as Josh stills and stops breathing.

The next thing Josh knows, she’s back in the white room, naked and male again. He doesn’t have to think about it.

“I want to go back! Please, you have to send me back!” He begs, and the voice laughs softly.

“I will send you back, but I believe you have questions,” the voice replies, and Josh sighs in relief.

“Who are you? How did you do this?” He asks quickly, desperate to get back to Dan as soon as possible.

“I am Iapetus, Titan God of mortality. You perished before you were supposed to, so The Fates; Hades, King of the Underworld; Mnemosyne, Titan Goddess of memory; Phoebe, Titan Goddess of prophesy; Menoetius, Titan God of mortality; and I all worked together to make things as they should be.”

Josh mulls over this information, and realises something.

“Wait, prophesy? You said Phoebe, Titan Goddess of prophesy, what does prophesy have to do with it?” Josh can almost hear Iapetus smile.

“Sometimes, when two people are born, the love that will bloom between them is to be so strong, even the great Phoebe herself will feel it. You and Daniella were destined to be together, The Fates knew it. You were supposed to accept an offer of employment in London, and meet her that way, but the accident prevented that, so we had to change things to ensure you would meet.”

Josh processes the information and nods.

“I understand, thank you for taking the time to explain. Can I tell anyone about this when I go back, or will I still die?” He asks warily, and Iapetus laughs.

“You may tell anyone you wish, but whether they believe you or not is another story. Now, I believe Daniella is rather distraught, it is time for you to return.”

Once again, a loud click echoes, and suddenly, Josh is lying on the floor on their tour bus, coming to just in time for the paramedic hovering over her to call ‘clear’ and press the charged defibrillator paddles against her chest.

He quickly pulls them away as she screams, checking her over to make sure the shock didn’t do any damage. They rush her to the hospital with Dan at her side, but no-one can figure out why she seized or why she stopped breathing for seven minutes. Josh knows, but she doesn’t fancy being chucked in the loony bin, so she keeps quiet.

Josh tries several times over the years to tell Dan, and the boys, what happened, but every time, they give her these smiles and nod, and she knows they’re only humouring her, that they think it’s just some mad hallucination she had while she was seizing. 

Josh knows it really happened, though, because every once in a while, she’ll see an oddly dressed group of people on the street, looking an awful lot like the paintings she found of the Titans, smiling at her and Dan and crying silently. She was blessed with a second chance, and the Gods wept at the strength of their love.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not entirely happy with this, especially the ending, but I can't figure out how to make it better. I might take a look at it again in a few months or so and change it.


End file.
